katalog-overlapping voices - Ritesinstitute
katalog-overlapping voices - Ritesinstitute
katalog-overlapping voices - Ritesinstitute
Erfolgreiche ePaper selbst erstellen
Machen Sie aus Ihren PDF Publikationen ein blätterbares Flipbook mit unserer einzigartigen Google optimierten e-Paper Software.
“throuGh LanGuaGe” in Vienna<br />
a COllaBOraTiON BETWEEN parrHESia, ZOCHrOT aND<br />
urSula HOFBauEr<br />
“Through Language” in vienna is a public art project, a visual dictionary and<br />
site-specific glossary alternating between arabic, German and Hebrew.<br />
The project was carried out in two places in israel – in Jerusalem and in Jaffa<br />
– employing arabic and Hebrew transcriptions and translations. it was a response<br />
to the widespread practice of israeli extremists who erase the arabic<br />
language from street signs, using stickers or spray paint, and to the state<br />
practices of palestinian cultural oppression through marginalizing and under-privileging<br />
arabic, an official language in israel. The arabic words constitute<br />
keys to stories, memories, hopes and fears, that are for the most part<br />
heard only inside private homes, without having a presence in the public<br />
sphere or its discourse. The idea is to allow arabic a presence in our public<br />
life. We would like to promote the cultural presence of the palestinian citizens<br />
of israel, the native people and culture upon whose destruction our state<br />
is built, and to express our wish to become culturally integrated in the middle<br />
East.<br />
Giving the arabic and the Hebrew languages appearance in the public sphere<br />
in Europe may evoke questions relating to the presence of our cultures within<br />
Europe.<br />
We hope to question tendencies of the Western world, in the past and in the<br />
present, to perceive the arabic and Hebrew languages and culture as threats<br />
and thus refer to the constant uprising of xenophobia and anti-Semitism in<br />
Europe. The project “Through language” also proposes language and culture<br />
as an arena for listening and engaging in dialogue with the other. “augarten<br />
Stadt” in vienna was not chosen by chance; as “verlorene insel (lost island)”<br />
it was the main scene of Jewish displacement in 1938 – and as a site of new<br />
migration, it is the space of current conflicts between populism, xenophobia<br />
and muslim self-assertion.<br />
“Through Language” was first presented in august 2006, in the framework of<br />
the exhibition “Neighborhood Works” (Curated by the Sala-manca group), in<br />
the German Colony neighborhood of Jerusalem. The project’s second presentation<br />
was in Jaffa, where it was curated by the “ayam” artist group, with<br />
the support of the Tel aviv-Jaffa municipality’s Culture & arts Division, Department<br />
of arts; The israeli Center for Digital art, Holon; and The New israel<br />
Fund.<br />
Parrhesia is a group of educators, social activists and artists (from the fields<br />
of graphic and industrial design, cinema, photography, video and fine art)<br />
who are engaged in israel’s civil society. The group collaborates with organizations<br />
for social change and community activists – in addition to working independently<br />
in the public sphere.<br />
Zochrot [“remembering”] is a group of israeli citizens working to raise awareness<br />
of the Nakba, the palestinian catastrophe of 1948. Zochrot endeavors<br />
to make the history of the Nakba accessible to the israeli public, so as to engage<br />
Jews and palestinians in an open recounting of their painful common<br />
history. Zochrot hopes that by bringing the Nakba into Hebrew, the language<br />
spoken by the Jewish majority in israel, they can make a qualitative change<br />
in the political discourse of this region. acknowledging the past is the first<br />
step in taking responsibility for its consequences. This must include equal<br />
rights for all the peoples of this land, including the right of palestinians to return<br />
to their homes.<br />
Parrhesia and Zochrot are engaged in an ongoing process of collaboration –<br />
the publication of Sedek, a magazine about the ongoing Nakba. its first two<br />
issues can be viewed in the following links: http://parrhesia.org/sedek2.pdf,<br />
http://www.parrhesia.org/sedek.pdf<br />
We thank aktionsradius Wien at Gaussplatz (www.aktionsradius.at) for a lot<br />
of valuable information, their hospitality and straightforward support.<br />
about the ConfLiCt<br />
The entire city is scared. Different departments of the municipality have different<br />
fears. Street administration for example is afraid that pedestrians could stumble.<br />
Some inhabitants of the 20th district are afraid that a planned mosque could<br />
bring too much traffic into the neighbourhood. Some of them are also afraid of<br />
turning into strangers in their own country. The district’s administration is afraid<br />
that people living in the area could not understand everything happening in their<br />
streets. That art could irritate, even unsettle someone.<br />
a group of Jewish and palestinian artists from israel is planning to apply writings<br />
in arab and Hebrew in vienna’s public spaces. The streets of the Brigittenau<br />
district are to show a street dictionary, a site-specific glossary. The<br />
opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the arabic and Hebrew languages will be<br />
offered to the inhabitants and the visitors of a museum of modern art. On<br />
sidewalks and in shop windows of local merchants, everyday items will be labelled.<br />
Translation and phonetics in German included. “What is it good for?”,<br />
the Egyptian Deli asks me, and i answer: “So that we finally learn not only to<br />
spell Holocaust and Jihad in these languages, but also tomato, ice cream and<br />
phone box.” “Okay”, says the grocer and wants the word for ice cream to be<br />
written on his window. “in arabic they say gelati” he adds, and that he thinks<br />
it is about peace somehow. He is one of the few i meet in preparation for the<br />
project who is not frightened. The seamstress a few doors down the street<br />
has an uncanny feeling about writings in front of her door. “i know the austrians<br />
by now” she says, and: “i have experienced too much”. She left her<br />
hometown in former Yugoslavia, when her house was under heavy bombardment.<br />
i understand that her economic survival is at risk. She could lose her<br />
austrian customers. and when she points at the arab writing in my map and<br />
says that she is muslim, i also understand that she fears to be mistaken for<br />
someone wearing the headscarf as a signal.<br />
The owner of a house, whose facade we would like to use, asks for different<br />
languages. Tibetan for example, that would be a current conflict. One should<br />
not always get caught in the historical. i think that it is a good idea, but a<br />
completely different project also. Some others wish for different words to be<br />
used, like peace, friendship or love. Everyone is pro universal peace. But how<br />
to achieve that? a local politician explains it to me: “We in austria have fortunately<br />
found a way to keep the peace between the many ethnic groups living<br />
here. Not all the peoples in the world are able to do so.” The perception<br />
of the israeli-palestinian conflict as an ethnic squabble in the next neighbourhood<br />
astonishes me. For some ten minutes i want to get out of here. On one<br />
hand, because my allergy to the proverbial conflict avoidance of the viennese,<br />
which i believed i’d healed, is returning. On the other hand, because<br />
it is exhausting to watch how efforts are made to bring all conflicts to vanishing<br />
point, over and over again – and in the end it seems a big surprise that<br />
the very same conflicts are resurrected sooner or later, like ghosts out of their<br />
graves in a horror movie. What’s responsible for this, we ask ourselves with<br />
friends over a cup of coffee. Where does this conflict avoidance come from?<br />
“metternich”, i say. i could add “the austrian social partnership”, or “high<br />
mountains”, but the truth is: it is an open question.<br />
On the level of signs it is only the arabic that scares people. They hardly recognise<br />
the Hebrew in our sketches for the writings, it stays apart, marginal.<br />
Hebrew is what the house owner with sympathies for Tibet called “the historic”.<br />
it still exists in micro-elements in some parts of the public in the second<br />
district, but it does not cross the threshold of everyday attention any more. it<br />
is the past, the long ago, the deceased that has no more meaning. The arab<br />
signs stand for the topical, ongoing conflict, the newsworthy, for the mosque<br />
built on the Dammstrasse in the 20th district, for the fear of alienation and<br />
unsolved problems. The citizens’ committee against the mosque expresses<br />
their fear of “noise pollution, vehicle emissions, dirt contamination and a lack<br />
of parking space” due to the amount of people expected to visit the mosque.<br />
The racist attribution of noise and dirt to migrants is highly problematic. Yet<br />
i understand the wish to be heard with one’s concerns by politics and by po-<br />
159